I couldn't bring myself to be definitely fanatical, so I said probably. It's a matter of perspective - out in the 'real' world I may appear to be a fanatic, but on Teachat I'm just a run-of-the-mill tea drinker. After all, who here would bat an eyelash when I pack my newly opened bag of fresh Sencha into 3 Upton tea sample tins, and then stack them into a double lidded washi canister. It's just common sense to store tea this way.

In my cup this morning, a session of Sencha Otsuusan Karigane. According to the inventory I maintain in my iPhone tea app there are only 3 sessions left, but I have a new bag in the closet.

I am pretty fanatical about my tea purchasing. I like a few select vendors though I am always open to try new things, a rule of thumb for me is quality over quantity. My favorite tea sources are Yuuki-cha, Seven Cups, Halcyon Tea, Mad Monk, and sometimes a local japanese super market that carries a good selection of organic fresh green tea.

todays tea was a tie lou han, now I have moved on to a gyokuro, tastes great with some japanese sweets.

Tricky question. Sounds like you want to know if you are fanatical about the vendor.I have yet to find a vendor with an entire stock of unbelievable teas.To date they all have had strengths and weaknesses. It has taken buying many samples and then choosing from them. Although some may get close, I doubt any vendor has a selection that is made up entirely of mind-blowing teas.

On a separate but similar topic, a big issue is the disconnect in getting high grade tea from source to western market. Sure wish I spoke Chinese!There was a recent nice post on the fact that most high grade tea goes to bigger cities (in Asia) with higher incomes.

I have the benefit of a brother living in China at present. He isn't as aware of how to find and purchase the higher grade teas, but I'm hoping to learn enough myself to help guide him. He has frequently brought back a selection of delicious teas. The difficult thing is that most of the time, we have no way to identify specific details about the teas. Many of them are purchased in standard markets at random booths. So when it comes to these teas, I'm not fanatical at all.

But when I purchasing teas locally or within the US, I'm much more picky. I'm still learning where to find good options, higher quality, etc. However, I don't purchase just any old tea (as I used to).

So when it comes down to it, I put I'm probably fanatical. It's a balanced approach, I guess.

I'm definitely picky about who I buy from. I don't want to deal with people or companies who are unethical/rude (e.g. Teavana/Yuuki-Cha, from what Chip has said) or who put more effort into advertising/appearance than the quality of their tea. That said, as I've said in other posts, I can't be too picky given my financial situation. I would love to find the vendor of all vendors though... top-notch quality, friendly customer service, knowledgeable, and (the hard one) prices that are cheap.

As it's become easier to tell the difference between better and lesser teas, I get more selective in my tea sources. I am more likely to try new teas from a source I trust than a new source for new teas, unless the new source has a good reputation here or on other forums. I've gotten a lot more selective in what I buy from my local brick & mortar shops as well.

Starting today with a new sencha from O-Cha, the Kirameki, an excellent starter, rich, sweet, vegetal. It's a nice change from yesterday's two puerhs--Lao Cha Tou in the thermos, and Lao Ban Zhang gongfu cha in the evening.

When it comes to purchasing tea, I take into account things like its storage, how personable the vendor was, and if I received the tea that I ordered. I've had a few cases where I didn't get the tea I ordered, and when I asked the vendor, they pretty much didn't speak english well enough to answer me. In that case, I obviously didn't buy from them again.

Most of us know that storage can be different from different vendors. That's important to me. I've had a few teas that tasted/smelled/ felt nice overall, whereas others that seemed to have been stored in a laundry room (???) or in an area where there were lots of chemicals.

sencha wrote:I don't want to deal with people or companies who are unethical/rude (e.g. Teavana/Yuuki-Cha, from what Chip has said)

I'd love to hear more about this, if you don't mind. I, too, prefer to avoid unethical or rude companies (I'm in customer service with a company that is all in the US, and we pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service, so rude folks just rub me the wrong way.).

sencha wrote:I don't want to deal with people or companies who are unethical/rude (e.g. Teavana/Yuuki-Cha, from what Chip has said)

I'd love to hear more about this, if you don't mind. I, too, prefer to avoid unethical or rude companies (I'm in customer service with a company that is all in the US, and we pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service, so rude folks just rub me the wrong way.).

I don't have any personal experience with either, but after what I've read, they're on my avoid list. Read about Chip's (our beloved forum moderator ) problems with Yuuki-Cha here, and Teavana issues here, here, and here.